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Science Fiction & Fantasy |
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World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
written by Max Brooks
Studio : Three Rivers Press
by Three Rivers Press
Release Date : 2007-10-16
Publisher : Three Rivers Press
Released : 2007-10-16
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780307346612
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 425 reviews)
List Price : $14.95
Our Price : $7.68
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Product Description |
“The end was near.” —Voices from the Zombie War
The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.
Ranging from the now infamous village of New Dachang in the United Federation of China, where the epidemiological trail began with the twelve-year-old Patient Zero, to the unnamed northern forests where untold numbers sought a terrible and temporary refuge in the cold, to the United States of Southern Africa, where the Redeker Plan provided hope for humanity at an unspeakable price, to the west-of-the-Rockies redoubt where the North American tide finally started to turn, this invaluable chronicle reflects the full scope and duration of the Zombie War.
Most of all, the book captures with haunting immediacy the human dimension of this epochal event. Facing the often raw and vivid nature of these personal accounts requires a degree of courage on the part of the reader, but the effort is invaluable because, as Mr. Brooks says in his introduction, “By excluding the human factor, aren’t we risking the kind of personal detachment from history that may, heaven forbid, lead us one day to repeat it? And in the end, isn’t the human factor the only true difference between us and the enemy we now refer to as ‘the living dead’?”
Note: Some of the numerical and factual material contained in this edition was previously published under the auspices of the United Nations Postwar Commission.
Eyewitness reports from the first truly global war
“I found ‘Patient Zero’ behind the locked door of an abandoned apartment across town. . . . His wrists and feet were bound with plastic packing twine. Although he’d rubbed off the skin around his bonds, there was no blood. There was also no blood on his other wounds. . . . He was writhing like an animal; a gag muffled his growls. At first the villagers tried to hold me back. They warned me not to touch him, that he was ‘cursed.’ I shrugged them off and reached for my mask and gloves. The boy’s skin was . . . cold and gray . . . I could find neither his heartbeat nor his pulse.” —Dr. Kwang Jingshu, Greater Chongqing, United Federation of China
“‘Shock and Awe’? Perfect name. . . . But what if the enemy can’t be shocked and awed? Not just won’t, but biologically can’t! That’s what happened that day outside New York City, that’s the failure that almost lost us the whole damn war. The fact that we couldn’t shock and awe Zack boomeranged right back in our faces and actually allowed Zack to shock and awe us! They’re not afraid! No matter what we do, no matter how many we kill, they will never, ever be afraid!” —Todd Wainio, former U.S. Army infantryman and veteran of the Battle of Yonkers
“Two hundred million zombies. Who can even visualize that type of number, let alone combat it? . . . For the first time in history, we faced an enemy that was actively waging total war. They had no limits of endurance. They would never negotiate, never surrender. They would fight until the very end because, unlike us, every single one of them, every second of every day, was devoted to consuming all life on Earth.” —General Travis D’Ambrosia, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
From the Hardcover edition. |
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We must remember so it never happens again. |
Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (Crown, 2006)
If Studs Terkel were not still alive, I have little doubt that buy now, we'd have already had the companion volume to this book, telling the story of the zombie war from the other side. But Studs still clings to life (he's ninety-six as I write this, and for all I know he's still writing), and so we have only one side of the great Zombie War depicted here. Still, for those of us who lived through it, perhaps that's enough.
What, you don't remember the zombie war? Well, I'm not entirely surprised. Fewer and fewer people do. It's amazing how short our collective memory is. That's part of the reason Max Brooks wrote this book-- so that people wouldn't forget, that they'd have something to hold on to, some artifact they can consult. It's the same reason Terkel wrote his oral history of World War II; we all learn the dates and places in history class, but who ever dredges it up again, unless they go on to become history professors and propagate the same information? Terkel's book tells us what the battlegrounds were like from the perspectives of those, most of whom are now gone, who were actually there. So does Brooks'. No one who reads this will ever hear "Yonkers" and just think of a date and an event. You get an actual veteran telling the story and you can hear the explosions. You can taste the dirt. You can hear the moaning of the enemy. And Brooks captures it, as he captures the many other voices in this tome, by standing back and letting these folks tell it like they saw it.
This is an impressive compendium of voices, now that I'm n the subject. Men and women from around the globe, from the northern wastes of Canada to the South Pole (with the obvious exception of Iceland), offer their stories here. Some of them are still understandably bitter. Some are just angry. Some resilient, some defeated, some poignant. All of them together, give the clearest picture of a global conflict I've ever run across. Max Brooks is, truly, to be commended for his investigative work on this project, and his desire not to let the Zombie War fade until it becomes nothing more than a bad nightmare. For, as we all know, those who do not repeat history are doomed to learn from it. ****
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impressive |
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i found thst this book to be a well done novel that gave true insight into this fictional event |
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One Great Ride for Zombie Lovers! |
I was so pleasantly suprised by the quality of Mr. Brook's second book. He clearly has done his homework with so many little details in this story. His understanding of governments, military equipment, geography and human nature are all evident in this story. This creates a rich tapestry on which to superimpose an epidemic of undead cannibals.
One of the best aspects of this story is that Mr. Brook's has truly taken a world's eye view of the conflict. He relates narratives from sources all over the globe including China, Japan, Iran, Indian, the Artic and the good old USA.
A good yarn, if maneating reanimated corpses overrunning the world is your thing! |
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The Most Satisfying Zombie Fix |
I suspect that I am in a minority that recalls the Mars Attacks and Dinosaurs Attack card sets. For all I know, there was a zombie set as well. In these sets, a vast world-affecting event plagues the human race with horrible tragedy and drama. Each card would cover a different area of the world, and some wildly creative and unexpected takes on the events would be beautifully illustrated. One wanted to collect them all, because if you missed out on a couple - you knew that some really fun stories would be missing from your experience of the overarching story. The phenomenon of these collectible cards is the most fitting analogy to what is wonderful about World War Z that I can think of. Rather than a nasty crunchy rectangle of gum, though - this book is best suited for an accompaniment of your favorite wine.
Dozens of vignettes - each elaborating on the state of a world of humans desperately trying to survive the zombie menace. All very intelligently told, by a writer with an incredible breadth of knowledge about other cultures, military procedure, sociology, science and psychology. My sole complaint is that each vignette almost begs to be a novel of its own, and I wish I could have spent more time with the characters and watching the progressions within the scenarios. Not to say that they lack a satisfying conclusion, because they do not - the `point' of each section is crystal clear. They are amazingly original, as well - something hard to pull off since zombies have become the monster of choice in pop culture over the last 6 years or so (a resurgence from 20+ years ago).
I've read other zombie novels that came highly recommended - including a couple of the best selling books from a publishing company that actually tries to specialize in zombie fiction. In my opinion, none of them hold a candle to WWZ - or a match, even.
Max Brooks has managed to create a story that taps into whatever social anxiety it is that makes these nasty shambling viral beasts into the monster of choice in western culture right now. He takes the plague to its most logical and creative lengths, giving me my first truly satisfying zombie fix in book form. It is also the first time I've seen a story bring humanity out the other side of such an outbreak - painfully and after much strife, and possibly (dare we dream it?) a changed set of beings. |
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Hardly engaging |
This book is definitely overrated.
"World War Z", like other zombie apocalypse stories, had the potential to be interesting beyond the puerile appeal of gore and gung-ho survival situations by using setting to expound upon the human condition, or to address some phenomenon that has real-world relevance. Science fiction has a long history of intelligent commentary illuminated by strong characters, even while dealing with very similar scenarios (e.g. I Am Legend, Richard Matheson).
But Brooks did none of the above successfully in "World War Z." By getting too geekishly involved with technical details, he fails to devote enough time developing his characters. He adds to this neglect a barrage self-consciously hokey and unbelievable, DeLillo-esque name-dropping as a cheap attempt to add realism, and a substantial quantity of cardboard dialogue. The result is pretty tedious.
One could argue that the merit of this book is the detail he puts into his presentation of systems and cultures, though that would also be difficult to defend. Although I don't claim to know a lot about all the cultures presented, I am quite familiar with a few, and Brooks' presentation of them bares more similarity to stereotypes than to the truth. In particular, the sections about Japan show how little he understands about that culture, which leads me to wonder how many others he failed to understand.
Ultimately, "World War Z" attempts and fails to be an intelligent book. In making the attempt, Brooks left out any chance for suspense, thus this book fails on the visceral level too. My advice is to read Matheson or David Michell's "Cloud Atlas" for intelligent sci-fi, or stay with Stephen King, who is at least a good storyteller. |
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